Today Apple released its first update to Mac OS X Lion: 10.7.1. You can read a little about it on Apples site. If youre on Lion already, this update is a must. Here, 10.7.1 runs in glorious silence, quite a difference from my Macs "roaring" (get it? Lion? Roaring?) fans under the initial 10.7.0. Thats a big plus.

Its likely that Apple was working on this update even before Lions initial availability, which means that much of 10.7.1s improvements is stuff that Apple already knew about. And that means that bugs that were found after Lions release could still be present-- but Id expect a lot of them to be fixed in 10.7.2.

If youre on 10.7, Step One is be absolutely positive that you have a current backup. You can go to Time Machines menu and tell it to "Back Up Now" (thats what I did). Step Two is get 10.7.1 via Software Update under the Apple menu. Step Three is restart, which the Installer will insist upon. You might get some disk activity and fan noise immediately after the restart, but it ought to go away in time. You can restart again after that and from then on it ought to be smooth sailing.

You can probably tell that I am not keen on Lion. I prefer Snow Leopard for several reasons, some of which I will write about someday soon. But, if youre already on Lion, youll be happier after installing the 10.7.1 update. Just be sure you have that backup, just in case.

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Somewhat overlooked in last weeks iPhone 4 pandemonium is the updated operating system for iPhones called "iOS 4". Its available as a free download for existing iPhone and iPod Touch users. (Sorry, it is not available yet for the iPad.) I put it onto my iPhone 3GS and its working fine.

Heres what youll get when you install iOS 4 onto your existing iPhone: (note: iPhone 4 owners can skip this-- the iPhone 4 comes with iOS pre-installed.)

• Multitasking: in effect, it lets you suspend an app, and come back to it later, just as you left it-- saving you the time it takes to launch it and get to where you were.
• Folders: you can group apps into folders now. Each folder can hold 12 items. I have two and a half pages of folders, grouped just the way I like them (Navigation, Utilities, Reference, Shopping, Sports, etc.)
• Improved Mail: you can see all of your Inboxes at once.
• Digital Zoom for the camera: like the one in Gorillacam, but now built-in.
• iBooks: you can now buy books from Apples store, and read them on your iPhone or on your iPad. Note: free Winnie the Pooh book is included and the books have the same groovy page-turning animations as on the iPad.

It took about an hour for me to do the update on my iPhone 3GS and I would expect it to take about the same for you. If you have an original iPhone (aluminum back), youre out of luck-- it wont install at all, so dont try. If you have a 3GS its a no-brainer-- go get it, its free.

Heres a link to Apples site where you can learn more about the iOS 4. Heres a link showing how to install it.

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